Telecom is making carrier aggregation (CA) technology live on six of its 4G mobile sites. Telecom has worked with technology partner Huawei to bring this new potential to New Zealand.

Carrier aggregation allows mobile users to access two mobile spectrum bands simultaneously over their mobile devices – the combination giving them a significant increase in data speeds. 

The technology is so advanced that Telecom’s mobile network has arrived ahead of device capability, but Telecom expects to have CA-capable devices commercially available on its network by the end of this year or early next year. Chief Operating Officer David Havercroft says when CA devices do come to market, Telecom customers will be able to take advantage of “phenomenal” data speeds straight away.

“This sets up the Telecom network to stay right out front when it comes to future technology. 

“Carrier aggregation on our network allows for theoretical peak speeds of 300Mbps, and our testing has seen speeds on live sites of up to 260Mbps download. This is roughly double the theoretical peak speeds on our existing 4G network, and more than seven times the theoretical peaks available on 3G.

“Obviously when we have multiple users on the network in the real world, these speeds will come down, but the technology will still make a big difference to how people can use their mobiles, tablets and any other CA-capable smart devices – downloading high definition videos and uploading large files, for example, will happen in seconds.”

Mr Havercroft said that over the coming months his team would continue to test the network and refine the customer experience, in anticipation of CA-capable devices coming to market.

Telecom launched its 4G network in November 2013 in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. It has recently announced it is extending 4G capability to a number of other New Zealand towns over the next few months, including Dunedin, Rotorua, Blenheim and Nelson.

Telecom is also about to begin a non-commercial customer 4G trial in the Waikato using the 700MHz spectrum, which the government is currently auctioning off for use in mobile services. The 700MHz spectrum will be important in bringing affordable 4G mobile data services to most of New Zealand, as it delivers greater reach and enhanced in-building coverage over other higher band frequencies. This makes it more efficient to build and ideally suited for delivering 4G services in regional areas.

Telecom carrier aggregation uses 20MHz of the 1800MHz spectrum band and 20MHz of the 2600MHz spectrum band.

chevrolux:
So meh, just a marketing thing I reckon. Just trying to do the old one-up on VF - because VF kick a5s at doing things first.

waikariboy: Great a faster way to use up your datacap!

sbiddle: To be completely honest it's getting a little tiring seeing some of the PR spin come out of Telecom lately.

They've lost a lot of ground in the mobile space and are running into big speed bumps, particularly with 3G and 4G networks from different vendors.

VF have been trialing CG as well and you could argue that CG at present is no different to vaporware - nobody can buy a device that support it so it's pointless bragging about it.
 

nathan:

waikariboy: Great a faster way to use up your datacap!

I've never really understood this mindset

NonprayingMantis:
It's also something that VF will have a hard time reproducing - they don't have an army of phone boxes in public places to mount modems on. so it's pretty good as a service differentiator.